Soros @ HKU: On China and the World

Hong Kong – China needs to pay attention to how the world sees it, George Soros said.

The international financier and philanthropist spoke at an open-mike discussion at The University of Hong Kong on Wednesday.

As China grows more influential, it attracts increasing attention from the rest of the world. In order to gain more international recognition, Soros said the country’s leadership should be more tolerant to outside criticism.

“The current Chinese leadership is good at self criticism and conscious to get things right. But they need to accept outside criticism,” he said.

The process of China moving towards an open society is the need for critical thinking, said Soros.

“China has developed a pretty effective critical thinking process, but it’s confined to the leadership.”

Soros also said that China’s harmonious doctrine will help it become more tuned in to the world.

Top right: Soros was quizzed by a panel that included Xu Chenggang, HKU professor of economics, Robyn Meredith, a senior editor at Forbes Magazine, and Richard Wong, HKU Vice Chancellor and Provost